Shattered Images
by Cysha
Summary: Eclair uncovered secrets on Dardanos...including ones she'd hid herself.
1. The Sight

Shattered/Images

Jumping through the crisp air to dodge the bullets…something she'd done so many times before. How many times had she done it? Leaping through the air, dodging bullets without a thought, with the skill and grace of an ES member. Always to save the galaxy another day.

But this time, something was off. When she flew, seemingly suspended, fearless, in the air, something in her deep subconscious mind hummed. For a moment, she saw what she expected to see, her hair whipping in her face, the sky above and around her, the bullets whizzing past, and then-

It flashed before her vision, and it tingled in her mind, and yanked at her soul. The image and sensation didn't even make sense, but something within her new something was off. Something was wrong.

She gasped at the unexpected image and sensation. This was…strange.

"Wh-what…?"

Her voice was barely a whisper, it was almost unsaid. But she felt strangely frightened.

The image came again, this time it was more of a scene. The scene tugged at her soul once again, bringing tears to her eyes. Her mind tingled once more, painfully so. The scene shook and shivered, and it was dim and haunting.

She had the sensation of lying in bed. It was early morning, it seemed. The room was shapeless around her, composed of shadow. A radio sat on the bedside table. She reached out slowly, and placed her fingers on the cold buttons. The radio came alive, humming with light and screeching sound.

The image faded, and she felt herself slipping. Physically and mentally. She fell forward in the air, crying out softly as the images and sensations retreated. If she wasn't careful, she could be hit by the bullets. She threw a lipstick grenade, and the bullets exploded around her. She made her getaway.

But one question remained in her suddenly unbalanced mind. But she had no answer. She had no explanation. She could only move forward and continue her mission, hoping the feelings would not persist. Yet the question remained.

What was that back there?


	2. The Shattering

Shattered/Images

It's mind control. That was what the problem on Dardanos was. That's why everyone had been so out of it. And she was sure of its source. Now to stop it.

Her fist slammed into the cold of the door. The door it the floor with a heavy bang. She stood, panting hard, in the entrance of the white room. The man that had greeted her lay dead. Dripping with blood. A terrible death, probably one that wasn't deserved.

She looked away.

She looked at the old green radio. It had been playing holiday when she had moved in. Now it lay still and silent. Probably broken. Suddenly, the world around her faded.

The old sensation had retuned, the tugging at her soul, the painful shifting in her mind. The same old image, just as shadowy and foreboding as it was before. With the bed, the radio, her hand, slowly reaching for the smooth button. The sudden noise as it came to life, then the song…holiday.

The song?

Her eyes winded. The song was beautiful. It was gentle yet powerful. It made her whole body hum with the song. Her world was the song. Of course, the unbelievable pain, the ancient sadness, the beauty of the song. The room filled with floating cotton, or maybe snow, drifting before her.

She could see that the radio was playing now. Playing the song. Holiday. It was a holiday.

The world faded away, into the song. She distantly cried out, the ancient sadness was ripping her apart, but she was caught in the song and cascade of images. Each image, some recent, some ancient as her pain, sang with the music.

X

There she was at the beach, with Maryann and Bran. Her body was different, she stood shorter, and she had the body of a young girl. Lumiere was there, too, of course. Lumiere stood taller, her hair in a different style, her clothes more dressy. She playfully splashed Bran, and he turned around, a look of surprise on his face.

"Hey, now you splash me too!"

She laughed with joy and playfulness of the occasion. Lumiere and Maryann smiled at her, everyone sharing in her fun.

X

Then she was in a dark cell. Her body was once again different. A little worse for wear. Her hair ragged, her body starved, her eyes wild. Her hand pounded painfully against the door, to the point of damage. She was trapped, alone, sad, and terribly frightened.

"Let me out of here! LET ME OUT!"

She screamed with all her might, and hit the door with all the force she could muster, but nothing happened. There was no way out.

X

New body, a large outdoor area with a podium and many hard-faced soldiers, new body, helicopters roaring in a screaming hot sky above her head, new body, an old memory of a young body and new power, new body, a room that contained a bittersweet memory, with the feel of a child in her arms, new body, the rising heat of a mission success, new body, the horror of a planet being destroyed by her own bare hands…

X

At some time during the flow of music and memories, and different bodies, she had hit the ground under the pressure of it all. She lay, gasping for air, her body on the cold white floor, her hair spread around her. The music did not end, it sang on bringing pain and joy and fear and hope, and anger, and guilt, and regret, and happiness, and sorrow, on and on, each memory spilling over another, glowing in time with music.

Éclair could never escape it. Her hair fell over her eyes, shutting out her last connection to the world. She would lie here forever, floating in music and emotion and memory, until…

BANG! BANG! BANG!

…the music stopped.

She heard something distant, something from the past or future or present.

"Éclair! Éclair, no!"

X

The helicopter roared over her head. The music may have stopped, but the memories could not. Her body was swift and agile, well-seasoned for battle. The helicopter was loud and noisy, and the sky was bright, hot and harsh above them.

"Éclair!"

X

"Hands in the air, away from the console!"

Her body was tall and lanky, her hair just as long. She wore the outfit of an ES member proudly. She sat on the bridge of a different La Muse, pointing a gun at Lumiere. Lumiere looked over slowly in the dim light of the ship.

X

"Éclair!"

Éclair could see the present Lumiere above her, but she only registered it distantly. She was still floating into different bodies, ancient scenes, and roiling emotions.

X

Lumiere's fingers were pressed tightly around Éclair's head. Lumiere's nails glowed. She was trying to call Éclair back. But her efforts were in vain. Éclair could feel the calling, but she could not wrench free from the mass of everything within her mind.

X

The building around her had collapsed. The ruins that still stood tall reached for the sky, black broken pillars, with reaching branches. The sky was unbearably hot, two glowing suns sat over the planet. Their heat was incredible. She was inside a searing oven. Her body was badly damaged and bleeding. Her hand reached weakly upward, as if to touch the suns, to stifle their heat. But to no avail.

"So…warm…"

X

Lumiere called her desperately, putting all her power into calling Éclair's troubled mind.

"Please, Éclair, come back."

X

She was going to die. In this heat, with the blood of her own broken body seeping into the hard ground. She tried, once again to block the heat. The thirst. To stop the dying.

"So…so warm."

X

"Please, Éclair, I can't bear to lose you again. Come back. Come back."

She felt the tugging again. Something was trying to pull her out of this raging sea. Her hand twitched. Was there a way to swim in the maelstrom?

BANG! BANGBANG! BANG! BANGBANG …BANG!

The room around them buzzed. Things crackled. Dardanos's secret was out. The mind control would be no more. The music was gone for good. Some of the pressure released. Éclair found a way out.

Her amber eyes opened. She was awake.

Lumiere smiled with relief.

"Thank goodness. Welcome back."

Éclair began to sit up. For a moment she was okay. She was free from the turmoil from before, so for now she was safe.

"It will be okay now," Armbrust says, standing in the doorway. He had destroyed Dardanos's mind control field. "Now we have to recall all of the Holiday copies floating around out there."

Éclair sighed with relief. The mission was a success. Dardanos was free. She slumped against Lumiere, barely unable to hold herself upright after such an assault of the mind.

X

The La Muse flew away from the planet's surface, above the cotton fields.

Éclair sat in her usual seat. Yet she did not hold herself up as she usually did. She stared out the window, at the bouncing cotton, her eyes narrowed with pain. She may have escaped from the bonds of Dardanos's mind control attack, but she could not escape herself.


End file.
